Apparatus for sizing ores or for other uses.



No. 731,522. PATENTEDUUNE 23, 1903. S. R. SWAIN. APPARATUS FOR SIZING ORE- S 0R FOR OTHER USES.

APPLIOATION FILED JAN. 30, 1902.

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No. r131,522. Y PATBNTED JUNE 23, 1903.

s. R. SWAIN.`

APPARATUS FOR SIZING ORES 0R POR OTHER USES.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. so, 1902.

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s. R. SWAIN. K APPARATUS PURSIZING @RES 0R PoR OTHER UsBs.

APPLICATION FILED IAN. 30, 1902.

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Patented June 23, 1903.

FICE@ SETH RUSSELL SWAIN, OF EL PASO, TEXAS.

APPARATUS FOR SIZING ORES OR FOR OTHER USES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 731,522, dated June 23, 1903. Application inea January so, 1902. serai No. 91,836. (No man To allzvhom t may concern.

Be it known that I, SETH RUSSELL SWAIN, residing at El Paso, in the State of Texas, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Apparatus forSizingOres or for other Uses, of which the following is a speci fication, accompanied by drawings.

The great difficulties experienced in crushing-mills to obtain a properly-sized pulp for jigs'orconcentrating devices and the important economies which are accomplished by an approximately accurate sizing or classification of the tion.

The object of the invention is to accomplish an accurate or approximately accurate sizing or classification of ores or granular' materials ina rapid and thorough manner and with as large a capacity as possible. The apparatus, however, is not apparently limited to this use; but it is especially adapted and designedtherefor;

In the drawings, Awhich illustrate the pre# ferred form of the invention, Figure l is an end view of the apparatus. Figr2 is a plan view. Fig. Sis a side elevation, partly broken away, on the vertical section plane :t :n of Fig. l. Fig. 4 is a detail of one ofthe sizing or classifying screens with a portion of the reticulated surface removed. Fig. 5 is a cross-section of one of the supporting-strips for the sieves or reticulated portions of the sizer.

My process which the apparatus is designed to carry out differs radically from that of the Hartz jig, to which the apparatus bears a striking but superficial resemblance. The Water is pulsated by means of plungers, as in a jig; but the separation and classification instead of depending upon the different rates pulp has led to the present invenat which different sizes of particles of thev same substance and particles of different specific gravities may fall through Water depend entirely on the shape and size of the particles and the ease with which they will pass through openings in a screen or a reticulated surface. The pulsating movement of the Water alternately lifts the bed of material from the screen'and draws it down onto y the screen. The particles that can readily pass through the screen do so freely, and preferably fall down onto successive screens of smaller meshes. The screens are preferablyinclined, which tends to cause each'particle to fall back onto the screen to a lower point after each pulsation. From the lower end of each screen the particles that are too large to pass through the screen are removed, and beneath thelowest screen the finest pulps and slimes are carried out.

In the drawings the plnngers b are shown operating vertically in a plunger-compartment and connected with eccentrics c on the horizontal shaft d, which may be driven by the cone-pulleys f. The plunger-compart ment communicates freely at its bottom with the sieve-compartment g, the bottom of the partition being indicated at 7L in Fig. 3 and is seen in dotted lines in Fig. 1.

The sieves or sizing-screens may preferably consist of a frame having strips of the form shown in Fig. 5 and set on edge perpendicularly to the inclined plane of the sieve, screen, or reticulated surfacej. The pulsations of water through each screen are in a direction probably perpendicular to the screen-surface, and consequently inclined to the vertical, so that they tend to help the material pass gradually to the lower end of the screen, or, rather, they7 so help such particles as are too large to pass th rough the screen. The lowermost and finest screen may rest and be supported upon cleat-s Zt, and the other screens may rest one upon the other. This renders them easily accessible for cleaning and repair. The pulp is discharged into the sizing-compartment by a preferably diver-ging distributing-launder l, which should have divergent guides, preferably of sheet metal, as at fm. The material on passing onto the uppermostscreen is thoroughly agitated and stirred by the jets or pulsations of the water coming through the uppermost screen, and particles that can fall through the screen pass down onto the next screen, which is of smaller mesh, while the particles that cannot pass through the uppermost screen travel along'step by step at each-pulsation and are carried out through the outlet plug 4tap n, the passage way through which should open'from the, surface -of the sieve,provided with a suitable valve o.

Each screen is provided with a similar plug tap or outlet, and each consequently delivers an accurately sized or classified pulp the IOO particles of which are of such size as to pass lhrou gh the screen above and not pass through the screen from which they are taken. Beneath the lowermost screen the finest slimes or pulps are drawn out through the siphontap p. The water-level should be kept at about the position shown in Fig. 3, well above the uppermost screen. An overflow r is provided to maintain the proper Waterlevel. This overflow by carrying the Water from a point beneath the surface, and preferably, as shown, from the plunger-compartment, removes the possibility of oating particles being carried away by the overflow, and

the maintenance of a constant current of water from the launder down through the sieves and out through the overflow is insured. A constant and violent stirring and agitation of the particles upon each sieve successively partially assures the prevention of line slime particles attaching themselves to the larger particles and being carried out with the larger particles, making a mixed product, a defect common to most of the devices in use, if, indeed,notallofthedevices. Bythissubmerged screen-sizer, however, an almost ideal classi- Iication of the materials is possible, and they are washed in such a thorough manner that there is practically no mixture of the different classes. The floating off of line slimes is entirely prevented and every particle is thoroughly wet before passing from the machine. In many, if not all, instances the invention may do away with revolving screen-sizers and hydraulic sizing and classifying apparatus now commonly in use.

l/Vithout enumerating the changes and variations that may readily be made in the details of the apparatus without departing from the principles of operation involved, I claim as the novel and characteristic features of the invention the following:

1. The combination of a tank having apartition in its upper part to form a sieve-compartment and a plunger-compartment communicating at their lower ends, a plurality of dierently-sized sieves supported one above to be sized and water to the upper sieve, and K an overflow-pipe located outside the tank and leading from the plunger-compartment below the normal water-level, substantiallyas set forth.

2. The combination of a tank having a partition in its upper part to form a sieve-compartment anda plunger-compartment communicating at their lower ends, a plurality of differently-sized inclined sieves supported one above the other in the sieve-compartment which sieves are closed against entrance of Water except through the openings thereof, a separate valved discharge for each sieve, vertically-reciprocatin g plungers in the plunger-compartment, means for feeding the material to be sized and Water to the upper sieve, and an overflow-pipe leading from the plunger-compartment below Ithe normal water-level, -substantially as set forth.

3. The combination of a tank having a partition in its upper part to form a sieve-compartment and a plunger-compartment communicating at their lower ends, a plurality of differently-sized inclined sieves supported one above the other in the sieve -compartment, a separate valved discharge for each sieve, a Siphon-tap leading from the tank beneath the lowest screen, vertically-reciprocating plungers in the plunger-compartment, means for feedingthe material to be sized and Water to the upper sieve, and an overflowpipe leading from the plunger-compartment below the normal water-level, substantially as set forth.

Signed this 22d day of January, 1902, at Denver, Colorado.

SETH RUSSELL SWAIN.

Witnesses:

LEWIS SEARING, WILLIAM A. BOX. 

